Using the Object Manager

I just had to create a scene that contained a lot of different elements so Icould show you some of the features of the Object Managers, which is in theupper right-hand corner over here.It's going to move the Attribute Editor slightly out of the way, so we can goahead and make some adjustments here.Now if you watched the last movie, I told you that Attribute Manager was the onething that I used most in Cinema 4D.Well, that was only partially true.In most cases, when I select an object to work on, I am selecting it inthe Object Manager.Object Manager is kind of the Attribute Manager's yin to yang, its peanutbutter to its jelly.

When I select something in the Object Manager, it's usually to change itsparameters in the Attribute Manager, but the Object Manager is more than a handyway to select things in your project.It's really your project's central nervous system.It's usually the first place you go when you want to look at how a project is build.For any of you who might be previous Maya users, it's very similar to using the Outliner.So let's look at our scene here.As you can see, we have a floor object and then we have our JetCart, and I amjust selecting these by clicking right on the text.

And then we have a robot in the little JetCart here, and then we have athree-point light stage.Now anytime you see this Plus button here, what that's letting us do is minimizeand maximize the objects contained within that specific object.So, for example, let's click the Plus button next to the three-point light stage.As you can see, it contains all these different lights.Let's open up the robot.As you can see, there is another Plus button next to the body geometry.If we go ahead and click on that, it'll open up everything contained within the body.

So not only is this a handy way to minimize and maximize things, but this isactually a hierarchy where you can control different things in the scene.For example, if I selected a head, and I click on the Control Vertice, I can goahead and move the head.But then, if I click on the body, I can choose the Y Control Vertices and younotice everything that's below the body also gets moved in the scene.Let's just undo that really quickly.So you might be wondering how to create something underneath something else.

Well, it's pretty straightforward.For example, let's select the JetCart here, and just click and drag on one ofthe control vertices, and you notice that robot is not working with the JetCart.So let's undo that by just pressing Command or Ctrl+Z, and let's drag and dropthe robot into the JetCart.The way you do this is to click on whatever object you'd like to move, click andhold with your mouse button down and move down over the object you'd like it tobe contained within.Notice, as I move down over the text JetCart, I get this box with anarrow pointing down.

That will let me know, when I let go, the robot is now contained within theJetCart, and as you can see with the JetCart expanded, I've got a lot of thingsgoing on within that specific object.So let's minimize the JetCart, here, just by clicking the Minus button, andnow when we select the JetCart and move on its parameters, the robot is moving with the JetCart.Now, we'll get more into hierarchy later on, but I just wanted to give youthat, so you could understand how things are getting moved around in the Objects Manager.

Let's undo the move.Let me move our robot right back into the JetCart there.Okay, so with the JetCart selected, if you wanted to expand the parent and allthe children, if you hold down Ctrl when you click, it expands absolutelyeverything so you can see the entire hierarchy of everything that's containedwithin everything else.So let's show you, for example, if I Ctrl+Click on the body, it'llminimize everything.Now if I just open it up just by clicking, notice the other objects below have not expanded.

Again, if I just Ctrl+Click and Ctrl+Click, everything is expanded.So now that we know a little bit about the hierarchy and how to expand and groupdifferent things together by dragging one object onto the other, let's look atsome of these other options here.This circle we will get to later, when we get to the Layers video, but these twocircles, here, determine some important things.If we click once on the upper circle here next to the JetCart, go ahead and click once.That green is letting me know that this will be viewed in the scene.

If we click again, notice I get a red button.Now I can't see the cart in the scene, but if we go to Render by clicking thisbutton up here in the top-center, the cart and the robot are still visible.That's because the top button controls the visibility of the objects in theEditor, whereas the lower button, here, controls the visibility of theobjects, when you render.So, go ahead and click twice on the lower button and re-render the scene andyou'll notice now, we have an empty scene.Notice we can turn on and off all these options all the way througheach individual object.

Now, what if you want to turn a bunch of these on, or a bunch of these off?Well, if you just click and drag down, notice I get a Paintbrush, and as far asI drag my mouse, it'll keep turning those individual buttons on.If I click and drag down again, now I am turning them all off.Click and drag down again.We're back to our normal default state.Now, what if I want to turn both the Editor and the Renderer on and off together?If you hold down Alt or Option on your keyboard and then click, notice they willboth update, as you click in one of them.

If you keep mobbing to the right here, notice these different objects.If we click on them, their name pops up in the Attribute Editor.So, when we select this, this is called a Phong Tag, which we'll get too laterwhen we get into materials.And if we click on the next one, it's a Texture Tag, which helps control howthe materials apply.Okay, now, as you can see, this scene gets very, very deep, very, very quickly,as you create multiple objects.So, sometimes you want to be able to just search for something.So, let's minimize the JetCart and go up to the top area here, and you notice wehave a Search feature.

It's the same search feature that you found in the Attributes video.So if we go and click on that, let's say, I want to look for eyes, like the eyes of the robot.Notice as I start typing eye, the eyes pop up here.Now, I can select that object very quickly.Let's go ahead and clear the Search field.You can toggle the visibility of the Search field just by clicking on and off.Notice on the right we get the same option that we had in the Attribute window,where we can create another Objects Manager.Let's go ahead and close the additional Objects Manager.

Let's move on to some key commands.Let's say I'd like to duplicate this JetCart with the robot and everything.If you hold down Control as you click and drag, you can automatically make aduplicate of whatever you had selected.Notice now I have two JetCarts.And so, as you see, we have a pretty complicated scene building.If I go ahead and expand all of the different things contained within this newcopy, you can select different objects within the Objects Manager, just byclicking your up-and-down arrows.So, as we continue to work our way through this series, you will come to knowand love the Object Manager.

We will continue to explore some of the more advanced capabilities but for nowyou've got the basics to get started.So let's keep going!

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Author

Released

12/10/2009

CINEMA 4D R11.5 Essential Training covers all the important steps to get up and running with this easy-to-use 3D application. Designer and author Ian Robinson covers the essentials of 3D design, including modeling, animation, and integration with other design tools. Ian explores how to build objects with CINEMA 4D's basic primitives, and how to use light, shadow, and texture to give depth to a scene. He shows the proper use of the powerful animation tools, including MoGraph, to push 3D designs to the limit. Finally, Ian covers how to combine CINEMA 4D with other applications like After Effects and Motion. Exercise files accompany this course.